There are four footballers on earth still active as professionals who have won the Ballon d’Or. There is only one league on the planet where you can see two of them on the same pitch.
With that unique billing, the Saudi Pro League ushered out a calendar year in which the unprecedented and the inimitable have been standard setting.
As it turned out, Cristiano Ronaldo versus Karim Benzema, Ballon d’Or winners six times between them and Real Madrid colleagues through nine years and 342 matches in an era that celebrated the might and recruitment power of Madrid, had plenty of drama.
For Al Ittihad, Benzema gave away a penalty, one of two converted by Al Nassr’s Ronaldo; Fabinho was sent off, Sadio Mane and Abderrazak Hamdallah both netted a brace.